To comply with clean air standards set by the environmental protection agencies, it has become necessary to control the emission of foreign dust particles to the atmosphere from various industrial operations to within certain acceptable limits. The present invention is directed toward meeting these standards. Although various processes and means have been reported for the removal of foreign entrained solid particles from gas streams, none of the methods reported pertain to the removal of water soluble particulate matter from a gas stream by the method described in the present invention.
The German Pat. No. 2,161,222 issued July 6, 1972 (T. Takae, T. Kawabe, and S. Maeno) describes a process for dust separation from a gas by passing the dust-containing gas through a filter composed of a porous foam wherein the porous foam is impregnated with a solvent for the dust.